“He looks like he would ask to eat you or not and I think that’s something that is so rare nowadays” 😂🤣😂 this can be interpreted in so many ways I love eeeeeet
I believe that they are called "Krampus walks" which are based around this tradition. People in America or modern western civilizations will dress up as Krampus or in similar attire and parade the streets late at night. They do it purely because Krampus is cool.
Here in Sweden kids dress up for easter as "påskkärring" and "påskgubbe" which has it origins from the 1600's witch trials and go house to house to wish happy easter. And during the 13th of december we have a holiday called Lucia where mostly kids and teenagers in school dress up for the Luciatåg (lucia train) in white gowns, as gingerbread-men and "stjärngosse" and sing as a choir while holding a lit candle. The "lucia" wears a crown with candles.
@@ilona2921 Yeah I know Finnish people have some version of påskkärring and you also have celebrate lucia after it spread to Finland in the late 1800's from Sweden.
I just wanted to mention "Capra" means also goat, and I'm starting to see a pattern of goats in european christmas costumes :)) And you mentioned about the bells, in Romania, especially in the northen region where I'm from, there are creatures made just from huge bells, and they jump around to make a really loud sound, they are called "Draci". And lastly, I loved your video so so much, keep up the good work and I wish you a merry Christmas:)
@@J_Gamble Before being associated with the devil the goat was associated with Pan, so I think that this is where all these goat traditions come from. Goats are associated with Satan because they thought Pan was Satan.
I feel Mari Lwyd would have scored higher if behaviour went into scores as well as appearance. Basically, it appears at your door and demands *in song* to enter your house and drink all your alcohol, giving a reason why it may do so. You must *sing* a response reasoning why it may not. This goes back and forth, rap battle style, until one party can't come up with a new verse, at which point Mari Lwyd either leaves empty-handed or comes in and chugs all your beer. And yet all most of us get is Christmas trees and Santa Claus, smh
I came here hoping to see my country's costumes and even tho I have never participated in any way other than a spectator, I felt a rush of patriotism when you gave our kukeri 1000/10.
In Portugal there's a famous techno music group called "karetus" which got its name from traditional Carnival masked men from northeastern Portugal (called "caretos"), similar to the ones in this video. The group usually goes to shows dressed like them
I love it! I wish we had stuff like this here in the southern United States. We have our weird legends...like the Devils Tramping Ground near where I live. Or the Beast of Bladenboro...They're a little bit cool.
6:51 those are not "Lucifer's little helpers" , those are in all probability Perchten. Perchten are a mostly Austrian tradition. They run around with Saint Nicholas and scare little children, so they're a little like Krampus but still different because it's older and not really a Christian tradition but a pagan one. Depending on where you are in Austria, Perchten are BIG deal and there are public "runs" where a group of Perchten, called a "Pass" perform together. I live in Salzburg and Perchten are well loved here - every year there's a Perchtenlauf in the city for the different Passen to show off their costumes and it's a big event: ruclips.net/video/EpaP_182I2E/видео.html
perchten can be verz regional so some are scary, some are ridiculous. typical for mountain regions every valley is kinda unique since there was little contact (also from Austria btw. )
Mari Lwyd is basicly a way to try and get into someone's house for food and drink with the power of a horse's skull and song for anyone who did not know.
2 года назад+249
I think most of the creatures are basically a free pass for a drink
In Newfoundland, Canada they're called Mummers. Basically, a bunch of your drunk neighbours show up at your kitchen door, sweep on in, drink and play fiddle music while eating food. Did I mention the drinking... We need this on the mainland of the continent. - Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown/Pimisi
I read "power of horse's skull" and got flashbacks to an exorcism ala "The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ compels you!". I think I've had too much coffee. I need to calm down.
Well, there are theories that many of the Christian celebrations were purposely put on a date that would coincide with previous native European religious celebrations so that it would be easier to convert people to Christianism. The one I've seen getting the most discussion is Christmas being celebrated exactly at the same period the Romans used to celebrate Saturnalia (when the exact date Jesus was born in is unkown). It's either that or the people adapting their own religious celebrations to the new ones being imposed. This last one was also seen in a lot of the world when Europeans went on to push Christianity throughtout the world, with animist-christian blends in Africa, for example. In the end, we're just a blend of everyone that came before us and the people they interacted with, despite of how hard people have tried to destroy certain parts of one's cultural heritage.
It's the year that we aren't sure about. The month can actually be estimated, due to the setting and Jewish holidays and traditions described in the Bible. Which would put Jesus' birthday in April/Spring. We don't celebrate it there mostly because Resurrection is the most important holiday in Catholicism, so it pushes all the other celebrations to other days. The Saturnalia date was definitely picked to takeover Roman holidays, but also any holidays resolving around the Sun movements (as it is the shortest day of the year, which created hundreds of local festives).
Karolina never disappoints with her content. Always with her own perspective and always making it hilariously informative. Hope everyone who reads this has a wonderful holiday season!
I love all of these creatures so much. It's a shame these traditions didn't really carry over into US traditions but every year I do see more and more Krampusse around, especially in Chicago and in the Northeast! Thanks for sharing Charles Freger's photography as well, I love it so much! :]
Portland has it too, in the Pacific Northwest. We had our pics taken with Krampusse last year and it was almost like Halloween never ended. Not complaining!
@@chantehr5748 nooo(( Everyone has, in their own unique way. Traditions don't need to be from Stone Age to be valuable) In Russia we also don't have this very tradition, or it is forgotten ("people used to wear masks and sing for a treat" is everything you get from schoolbooks). But there are other traditions, older, newer, nwm. And we can appreciate those who don't forget theirs. Yeah, we don't have it, but it's so cool they do!
"It's kind of cute how she doesn't have skin... or meat .... but is still trying to give herself a glow-up" this is the reason you are a delight to watch
I am ashamed that as Slovak person I've never heard of chriapa, she seems cute. To the yule goat/joulupukki similarities, it's mostly because joulu = christmas (or yule, you can see the similarities of these two words and as Finnish was influenced by Swedish in the past, it makes sense), pukki = goat. So they have definitely come from the same origins and then they developed a bit on their own.
@@sourcandyxxx this I am aware of, but I've also always though it is more recent transformation and that in more folklorish context he may have retained a bit of his original appereance
@@sourcandyxxx his name actually comes from Saint Knut, who is an entirely different saint than Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas Day is the 5th of December, while saint Knut's is the 13th of January. Saint Knut is often symbolized as a goat, not exactly sure why.
Worth to mention that these caroling groups are also composed out of other, heavily regional takes on universal beliefs and characters that take on different roles! My favorite ones (and typical for the region I come from) is Gwiazdor (Star-man), an old bearded man literally coming from the stars and symbolizing our elders’ souls, and Gwiazdka (Little Star), the all-white goddess of stars and underworld. The pair is leading the other dressed-up carolers while visiting homes and giving out candies and/or small punishments to children.
@pawiooka Wielkopolska? Gwiazdor is nowadays an equivalent of Santa Calus, but I remember my grandma's story how he used to be rather scary type back in her childchood.
yeah it reminds me in the CIS region we have the Ded Moroz (Granddad Frost - Santa Claus) that is always assisted by his granddaughter Snegurochka (snow girl). The consistent part about Snegurochka is that an old pair made a snowman and wished it to be their daughter so she comes to life while it's winter, but melts once spring comes around (she symbolically dies (gets killed by her friends) during the coming of the spring celebrations). There's also a second story but that one was written in the 50's. It starts the same and she again gets murdered by her friends but this time she is revived. But nowadays she represents the Ded Moroz's little helper and is often depicted in children's media.
I didn't know there are so many hairy-goat-devil-peasant-winter-dressup traditions. The ones in Hungary are called Busó and I think they are supposed to scare away the winter. And they burn straw people, so there is that.
in poland we have „marzanna” which is a goodness of death, it’s a straw doll that is set on fire and thrown into the river, idk if people still do that since it’s not very environmental friendly
In Russia we have a week of maslenitsa where we burn a straw doll that's supposed to be Winter. We also make blini(Russian crepe pancakes) and stuff, some people also make syrniki(cottage cheese pancakes). I think in Ukraine they make syrniki and vareniki(sweet or potato/mushroom dumplings)
@@raywa5821 that sounds very cool! and since the british have guy fawkes night where they also burn a straw person, although for different reasons, it may not disappear.
Growing up in Romania I was so scared of the Capra that I would hide under the couch or table 😅. The Capra (goat) makes a loud noise and you have "handlers" coming to your house with it singing (to calm it down) and asking for offerings. Usually offerings would be fruits and nuts, baked goods, alcoholic beverages and more recently money.
"they check your farm to see if it's clean, and if it's not they take your wife, they cut her stomach and they put all the mess they found into her stomach" ... I see the patriarchy was always so subtle
There was a small, hardly ever used storage room in my rural school. The most scary and fascinating thing that lived there was a massive turoń head on a stick, covered in dust and spiders. It was around when my father attended the school, he remembers it being used, so that thing had enough time to become freaky
Actually, you may find several different traditions in each country. In Germany alone you will find at least 5 different ones, as they come from different cultures that lived in the areas simultaneously. Just about the one who brings presents on christmas, it's either St. Nikolaus, Christmas man (literal translation, don't judge me pls), baby christ, an angel, Jesus himself, a holy spirit and what not.
@@olgahein4384 yea and you can find this worldwide too. In bigger countries such as France, you have so many islands scattered around the world that have their own celebrations related to their places. Even Corsica, though it's considered metropolitan France, has not one, not two, but several different kinds of celebrations and carnivals. The harshest the travelling conditions are, the more secluded the places, and the more different cultures you can find, even in one place. Rather than country-wise, it's more fascinating that humankind as a whole ends up having more or less similar customs, despite huge differences in both cultures and habits.
About Joulupukki and Nuuttipukki. Nuutti is the older og version of the creature and arrives on Nuutti's day (13.1.) to end the Yule season, by taking all your left overs. Joulupukki is the modern creature which for a time was a compination of Nuuttipukki and Saint Nick. He would give gifts to good children and murder the naughty ones. Original Nuuttipukki had nothing to do with children specifically.
Don't forget about Kekripukki! The one who goes around the Finnish All hallows eve, or Kekri. These all are different representations of a goat-like creature, like in so many other European traditions.
Yeah, I think we've gotten all these pukkis kinda mixed up, even in the heads of native Finns. Nuuttipukki is one thing, and then kekri- and köyripukki (which is. two different names for the same creature...? kekri is the holiday so i suppose köyri is too and they're just different regional dialects), who went around kinda similarly to my understanding, collecting leftovers and alcohol specifically from the houses in the village? As kekri is a harvest festival. I heard somewhere it'd be usually in the neighboring village, not their own, but I'm not sure where I heard that. Then it was on either Nuutti's day or on kekri that if you didn't give the leftovers/alcohol the pukkis asked for, they might wreck your like oven/fireplace? Then Joulupukki today is just the word we use for essentially Santa, even though he's. Just a guy and not a goat. Joulupukki was apparently (according to wikipedia so take it with a grain of salt) born when the gift-giving St. Nikolaus, a practice which arrived to Finland in the 1800s, and the nuuttipukki tradition, which was much older, mixed and melded together. Up until the 1960s or so joulupukki wore grey, but then American culture and Coca Cola spread the image of Santa in red and thus it spread to Finland too. The man who drew the illustration of the first Coca Cola ad with a Santa dressed in red apparently had roots in Åland from his dad's side! Interesting.
Is that why the crime rate is low in Finland, throughout the years u just killed children that showed any sign of violent traits so only the good people could reproduce?
I am Romanian and this video is just 👌also the *someone breaking the wall* is so relatabe. I think there is a deep connection between Eastern European people and the drill. Anyway very nice content. I wish people would know more about these traditions and I think your video shares the knowledge in a very fun way. Love your channel and Merry Christmas🎄💝
I wish we weren't so eager to adopt Americanization in the 90's; maybe these traditions would have been more prominent. I mean, they survived christianization and communism, but it seems Americanization is what will finally kill them. So painful. 😓😓😓
@@georgeoldsterd8994 they are still extant in the country side. Hell, my parents live in the suburb of the capital city of my country, and we still get people dressed up in these folk costumes on New Year and Christmas (they celebrate Christmas old style in this suburb, so it's on January 7th, rather than December 25th).
So, tiny correction the first ones called Arapides are from the region in northern Greece called Macedonia, not Northern Macedonia the country. They come out on Epiphany day and symbolize rebirth and the coming of a new year (and spring). Fun fact: they are split in two teams and fight each other, one of the leaders dies, gets resurrected and afterwards they all celebrate and dance together😅
I once was on a business trip in the deepest parts of the austrian country side and went for a walk with my collegues in the evening. Suddenly there was a the sound of a cow bell running towards us and we know that the Perchten (Austrian Krampus) came after us. We had to run away so they won’t slap us with their rods. It was so creepy and I loved it! It‘s really fun knowing that a bunch of them were like 10 year old children that made the grown ups run away screaming! (My collegues were montegerians and serbians from the city, so they‘ve never seen these things) Love knowing that there are even more things to run away from now.
Haha. Btw, Perchten are not the Austrian Krampus', Perchten have a different background and we have both in our country. Krampus is the companion of St. Nicholas and punishes unruly kids with his rod. Perchten are supposed to drive away bad spirits during Winter and therefore can be considered lucky charms :)
Kukeri depend from region to region, in some it is like a mini-play. Every member of the group is assigned a specific role in a story - the king/tzar, the granny, the horse, the bear, etc.Symbolically, the Kukeri actors often act out a wedding, sowing, harvesting, and other rituals meant to preserve the natural order. A costume is either inherited or sewn by its owner. The same goes for the bells, that they wear, usually handed down over the generations. Some of the bells weigh no less up to 100 kg(not sure how much that is in lbs). The bells are worn around one's waist. The masks are usually constructed from wood and covered in colorful yarn threads, fur, animal teeth, beads, and horns. Back in the day, the Kukeri would go from door to door and perform their magical dances in front of the people. Nowadays this tradition is gradually disappearing, and the Kukeri monsters perform at big festivals and specially organized events. It is believed that Kukeri originate from Thracian traditions of the Thracian cult of Dyonisus (who was one of their main gods because boy did the Thracians love to party).
@@melanieg.9092 Glad to hear you enjoyed it! I think it is interesting how we, Europeans, have so many similar traditions, yet we fight over how different we are.
@@georgeoldsterd8994 I believe it is so, based on different interviews with men who taken place with it. But maybe if it is so heavy they wear only one.
We (Romanians) have the “capra” (the goat) from pre-Roman, pre-Christian times when the population was northern Thracian (we have a lot of fantastic masks too). It’s more of a New Year tradition, not really Christmas related, like most of our pagan origin holidays it’s related to the nature’s cycles. It’s interesting that peoples and nations that formed via the Slavs migration much later have this goat-like creature too, I didn’t know that, no idea how it was spread to Slavs. It’s not just us being pre-slavic, albanians are too. From what I can tell there’s like 4 large groups of creatures in this video, all seem to be related to nature, harvest, winter renewal: a largely east european group (goats, bears, deer), a celtic one, a german and scandinavian one and a finnic and baltic group.
My mum is from the South of Moldova and they have a Căluțul (little horse) instead of the usual Capra (aka goat). Căluțul is usually accompanied by some demon-like masked men with whips who whip anyone who's naughty, and some cossacks in their full military uniforms. It's apparently only a thing for the little village she's from, since everyone around them just has the typical Capra. And it's also a New Year's thing, rather than a Christmas thing.
Speaking of the Sweden's famous 'Yule Goat' it was set on fire … again. Do yourself a favor and Google this it's an epic tale. Atlas Obscura even made a timeline of "The Unfortunate Fates of the Gavle Goat" I lost it at the guys who dressed up and shot fire arrows, but the attempted helicopter kidnapping was good too.
Yule goat: I haft cometh to bring thee back the light of day! Swedish lads: Hehe. Straw goat. Yule goat: If that's how you're going to take it... A THOUSAND YEARS OF NIGHT IT IS!
As your fellow Pole I wanted to share something about tradition from district in my small city B) So basically you have this hierarchy of four beings you can dress up as: babka (grandma??), kominiarz (chimney-sweep?), diabełek (devil) and "dziad". The last one is the most interesting in my opinion. Costume of "dziad" contains: belt with bells, lash (strap on a stick), and tall hat with year and mask attached to it called "ciaka" (something similiar to those hats from 2:34-2:42) that matches pants and jacket (sometimes there are some tassels on it or paintings on the hat). To run as dziad, first you have to run as babka, diabełek and then kominiarz. You also have to be unmarried male and be born in this part of the city (even though all of the rules were ignored a lot of times...). Every New Year's Eve each person from the group gets their own round, metal plate with a number. They have their own eucharist, go to some houses to sing highlander carols and then run trought the whole district stopping in the half of a bridge that connects it to the rest of the city. Unfortunately I noticed that year by year the group gets smaller :( This tradition was meant to "drive away bad sprits"
The Welsh one is like the un-cursed version of the Cornish (Southern England) Penglaz the Obby Oss who still wanders about at the Winter Solstice. Still a horse skull but only comes out at night and has flowers on his head. A very rare demon baby.
the difference between nuuttipukki and joulupukki(who is the santa claus) is that nuuttipukki came into houses and drank last drinks and ate the last foods left from chrismant and didnt give gifts.
I think some of it has to do with so many generations of people giving up their unique cultural traditions in order to fit in to the mainstream of society better. "Mainstream" in the US still largely based solidly on fairly strict Anglo-Protestantism that purposely did away with folk traditions and looked down on people who kept them still (at best--plenty of people were hanged early on...)
when they do show something then the end up in a movie like Krampus --- that was awful. As child I was afraid of the Krampus but as he came together with St Nikolaus a nice present was given .
Same problem in Russia. Soviet tendencies in educational system avoided any religious context in historical studies. And nowadays we have an “orthodox revival” social trend but it mostly comes from the totalitarian empowerment and has no common neither with slavish traditional culture nor with Christianity that took place before the revolution while Russia was an empire.
you have no shortage of indigenous culture in the USA but if you cannot find the right teachers start a campaign. If you are interested in the idea of imported cultures read [ don't watch ] Gaiman's American Gods
@@hi-ve1cw Dyring the Victorian era and then the Wirld Wars these traditions were staunchly revived as acts of 'cultural resistance'. Either as resistance to the metropolitanisation of cities (and how the countryside was idealised as 'clean' alongside the seaside), or as a resistance to the fear if literal fireign invasion. It's waned in the decades since, but the general move away from organised religion in Britain has led yo some seeking out the old festivals as they now have a 'calendar based celebrations' sized whole in their life once again.
Nuuttipukki: scary pukki, who appears at the end of the joulu time. they go from house to house and made noise and ruckus and sometimes sang. They demanded christmas leftover food and beer and if they didn't get that, they would make some mischief or pranks. Now joulupukki: more like a santa claus nowdays, formerly nuuttipukki. These traditions vary depending on the region in Finland, in some areas nuuttipukkis are children who "trick or treat". Joulu used to be minor holiday and the time to mourn the dead, eat well and relax with family, now it's become more western and changed majorly.
As a swede, I'm sad to say that I have never seen a yule goat costume in real life. We all seem to have at least one yule goat made of straw to bring out for christmas though.
I met a julbock once when I was a child. He was kind of like santas sidekick and santa told all us children that he could never deliever all presents if it wasn't for the yule goats help to carry them and we all thanked the yule goat 😊
In Latvia this tradition is called ķekatas, not something i can translate tho. I dont think we have regular character, or Im not aware of them, except Laimes Lācis (Bear of Happines/Good Fortune) which i think i recognized in the Czech costume. The Bear gets brought in a leash from home to home to bring joy and good tiding for the next year.
There are actually lots of regular characters among Latvian ķekatnieki, as far as I can remember there is always Dzērve (Crane), Nāve (Death), Kaza (Goat) and several others that I can't remember now. But yeah, there's the whole shebang, as with other similar European pagan traditions.
That's really interesting! In Russia we also have a tradition of bringing a person in a bear consume on a leash for good luck! I don't think it has a name tho and It's a little niche
In Ukraine the main character for this carol festival/carnival is Koza (The Goat), but there are a lot of other characters involved depending on a day. Main part of celebration (its climax) takes place from January 6 to January 15.
That's similar to Russia, at least to my region, there's also the old new years celebration on January 13-14th with dumplings with secrets in them and stuff haha
Christmas in the world : Let us all Celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ Christmas in Europeans : Everyone hide creatures of the night is coming to eat our Children
This December I cosplayed as: Frau Perchta, a Krampus and a Mari Lwyd. NO. FREAKING. REGRETS! They are for who loves the spooky and cannot wait until next Halloween! XDDD
That’s crazy ! I work with kids in a small town in Alsace (north East of France) and those creatures seemed familiar to me… Then I remembered : more than 10 years ago, I worked from an exhibition of Charles Freger! Kids had to talk about their cultural traditions and we created an artwork with all that. That was really a good experience, I had totally forgotten about it ! Thank you for the reminder. And sorry for my bad English !
Du coup, je suis curieuse, il y a des photos de créatures d'Alsace dans les photos sur son site ? Il indique l'Alsace dans le résumé sur le site mais pas dans les descriptions des photos...
En Alsace on a le père fouettard. Le Hans Trop qui apparament était une vrai personne et dans mon village quand mon grand père était petit y avait vraiment un mec qui se deguissait et foutait les enfants dans un sac les enfants pour les faire peur. Il les amenait dans la forêt et tout. Mon grand père c'était fait taper à la place d'un autre gamin parce que le gars c'était tromper de maison.
Mais quand j'étais petite pour moi il ressemblait à un vieux de mauvaise humeur, des gros pied poilus, avec une gueule de méchant et une matraque / batte de base-ball/ bâton pour te tabasser avec et un sac.
Lovely to see mari lwyd getting a mention, i wish the tradition would become a bit more popular nowadays cause I've never experienced it, but i live in a city so no surprise there Cymru am byth 🏴♥️
They are all scary!! I remember as a Child in Germany we were always afraid that „Knecht Ruprecht“ would take away our presents . If we didn‘t behave before christmas we were threatened with him :D
2 года назад+98
not gonna lie, if I was a peasant child back in the day I would’ve shat myself every year at the very thought of these 😶
@ absolutely! I always made sure the gate in the backyard was locked the days before christmas. I mean Knecht Ruprecht wouldn‘t just walk in through the front gate, at least that‘s what I thought would keep him away :D
@ my mom grew up in a small village that had a very *specific* tradition of this kind around New Year's eve when people covered in sheep fleece (preety much like the first ones in the video, but white) would agressively play drums and whistle and basically frocefully jokingly entering your houses. Needless to say, my mom is terrifies of Christmas/New Year traditions to this day, even though now she lives in a city where all of these are carefully organized and peacefull. The trauma is real
I know the feelings about Knecht Ruprecht very well. We were told he catches the naughty children in his sack and takes them to the woods. My uncle experienced this as a child for educational reasons, but he returned safely... And my Grandma told us, if we were out in the dark the "Nachtfrau" (woman of the night) would get us. There was also a witch in the village, but my Grandma refused to tell us who it was, but she knew... lovely peasant life
In the Netherlands we have kind of the same tradition (even though it was under heavy fire the past 10 years). We celebrate Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas) on the fifth of December. He is a Christian saint that originally comes from Turkey (Mira), but most traditional songs indicate he comes from Spain together with his helpers, Zwarte Piet. If you behaved, then Zwarte Piet would give you candies and Sinterklaas would give you some presents, but if you were a naughty kid you would, depending on your level of naughtiness, either get a bag of salt instead of candies, get slapped by his twig bunch, or put into an empty presents bag and taken with Sinterklaas to Spain to train as a helper instead. My parents once gave my brother a bag of salt because he threw a tantrum, bu tmost of the time being threatened to be taken away to Spain by Zwarte Piet would do the trick xD
I'm so glad you covered this! I used to live in Poland and I write fantasy. In my recent book I based a lot of the magic on Slavic folklore and the winter costumes made an appearance.
Croatia has different regional takes on these as well, most known ones, I think, are Zvončari, from "zvono" meaning bell. They are covered in fur, wear scary masks and cow bells (this combo seems to be a trend in Slavic countries), but they appear for Carnival, nor Christmas. The bells they wear are supposed to scare the winter away and bring forth good weather.
Bulgaria Rocks! Those flowy, floofy towers of Bric-girl hair flip are simply fantastic. And I now need to see a four year old dressed as a giant broomstick. This needs to be memed into existence. All the very best of the Season to you and to everyone of The Cos Tube. May it be filled with rest. May it be filled with joy. And filled with regeneration. See you on the other side of the New Year. - Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown/Pimisi
It makes me sad, thinking about how many of these old traditions slowly fade into obscurity. I am sure there are (or were) tons of these where I live, that I have never heard of, because they have become so rare. This makes me despise the spread of Halloween even more.
Sometimes it's also the Americanisation in the form of PC that makes them obscure. It's difficult to take a tradition and then twist and twist and turn it into PC-proof traditions, without destroying everything it stood for, everything you wanted to avoid changing and also traumatize some kids in the process. I'm not talking about scaring kids or violence ofcourse, as a child-daycare worker, I don't necessarily think you have to keep holding onto that.
Well, I don't know about other places, but in Portugal there only one such similar figure called "caretos" which traditionally comes out on Carnival in a few villages in Northeastern Portugal. And they are REALLY well known throughout the country to the point that those villages get crowded with tourists every year arround Carnival. It really became a marker of those villages and it dinamizes the region arround that period of the year. I don't see it disappearing anytime soon because of how lucrative it became to a place that usually doesn't get much attention, movement or dynamism. But I don't know how that plays in other countries. I do believe that it is so unique and different from what people are used to that there's a chance to not only preserve them but make them an asset for the regions they belong to.
I am a little disappointed that there was no mention of "cigarróns", "peliqueiros" nor "boteiros" from the galician carnival (entroido) in northwestern Spain :( ... but alas, Karolinas content is always great
In Brazil we have a tradition where cow dressed men go house to house singing and dancing. It's linked with the Three Wise Men tradition and it used to scary me! I can see inspiration camming from various of these!
It cracks me up to see all of these non-European folks in the commnent be nicely disturbed by our folklore creature, that I'm just like... "Oh man, and that's not all we have, fairytales and other creatures unknown to you (just for exmp. from my czech folklore we have Morana, Polednice, Vodník...so on), that you'd be really like - how you can find this normal?!"but trust me when you live with this your whole life it's ju like that
Idk, there are plenty of disturbing folk creatures from around the world. They just haven't had their moment of fame yet. At least in South Asian (and to some extent south-east asian) folklore, Gods and even people end up with animal forms. Evil demon creatures straight up take on animalistic forms.
Same thing in Latvia, we call it " Ķekatas". We have those haystack things, animal skull things on a stick with the blanket, devils and some random tall woman with her short husband lol. I never new that this was a tradition all over Europe🤔
Yass I was hoping Mari Llwyd would get a mentioned, she's much loved in Wales! I think the tradition is that she goes around asking for poems, and if they don't give her poems she trashes their house... Or something. 😁
nah, she has a song battle against the locals asking to be let into their houses so she can get have some food and alcohol and the homeowners have to try and convince her not to. Like rap battling a horse skeleton to keep your booze
OK,OK, now I have an urge to put some more info about Čerti (Devils) in Czechia :D It's not specifically Christmas tradition, it's tradition on St. Nicholas day 6.12. (Mikuláš). And the masks are hugely different from district to district, from town to town, even between 20 km range of villages, they are different. Like every village have it's own uniqe form of Čerti and St. Nicholas and Angels and their helpers. So, I was little dissapointed when I saw just one picture of Czech Čert and not the whole group. Here is video about few of them, sorry about the quality, I was lookig for the biggest range of differencies and still I miss few of them. ruclips.net/video/JgvLaAccIjM/видео.html The point of all of this - St. Nicholas (Mikuláš) with his group of devils, angels and their helpers is going from house to house and he is asking little kids if they were true and kind, if yes, the Angel (Anděl) will give them sweets, if not, the Devil (Čert) will give them potatoes or coal (in the past, the devil put a child in a sack and shaked them or beated them with broom or pitchwork). Kids then have to pray to the God. Currently, they will make a foto together :D Aaand then, bigger kids from all the village are waiting outside and are waiting for the group. And devils will start to play chase and catch with hands full of coals and they will be trying to paint the faces of these kids. Kids are playing, who will have less painted face. And because devils are very heavy with lot of fur and bells, they have chase helpers - they are very ligh clothed and very good runners. They can be characters of Death (Smrt) , Rainbow man (Laufr), Bear (Medvěd). In the past there were Judes (Žid) or Turks (Turek), but now it's not used anymore. It's very likely, that there are more of them, just not in my distance.
@@justmeiam4996 Yes, there was communist pressure to ban any of these traditions and replace them with Morozko but as far as I know (and I have prove photos) that angels and St. Nicolas were still the thing in that time.
@@justmeiam4996 Jo, Děda Mráz, Mrazík. Je mi líto, že u vás to tak dopadlo, tady u nás sa opravdu ty tradice držaly zuby nechty. No, když už zakázali anděly, tak taky zkoušeli zakázat Mikuláše jako hlavního svatého, který dělá tu kontrolu, Svatou Lucii, Barborku, celé Vánoce s koledama, Ježíškem a žranicí, fašanky/masopust, vynášání Morany, celé Velikonoce, Svatojánské ohně a další, jenže ono to vydrželo.
@@justmeiam4996 that's hella weird, bc i was born 34 years ago, in USSR, and Cherti were in lots of fairytales and cartoons, mentioned in songs and movies, even the oldest, black-and-white. I would rather blame Church for stripped us from all the traditions and heritage. It blended really poorly. Morozko, at least, is one of ancient spirits. It was him, who was later changed for st. Nicolay by church. And now Church wants its power back again. They already try to ban abortions, in different countries. Nah, i'd prefer old good atheism with a nostalgic flavour of paganism. Cherti, ryazhenyje, lichiny, Kolyada - bring them all back!
@@justmeiam4996 if you didn't, you would never answer. Wanting to hurt someone this bad means you feel hurt yourself. Hope you'll get better soon. Same human being, as you.
It's interesting: here in Hungary we also have little devil called "krampusz" and it comes with Mikulás (Saint Nikolas) on dec. 6th. and punishing the kids whose been naughty. The long red tongue and all-black suit is typical. The caroling in December is biblical here, but in the next months we have "Farsang" when everyone wear costumes (and eating sweet bakery products); with "Busójárás" (Busó-walking). Busó looks pretty similar to the creatures in the video, but they come after new year to scare off the winter. ❄👹🌱
Here in Czech Republic, we have the same tradition - but Mikuláš with angel and čert(basically devil, or the German version, Krampus) come the night before 6th. It's a lot of fun, though kids get a bit too scared sometimes.
*6:20** I LIVE IN BULGARIA* and I watch the goatskin covered dancers every year - they are AMAZING - the guys have to be super fit cos they weigh so much and they are so HOT inside. It is to scare away the winter - used in about March. The other thing they have the same day is all the biggest and most macho men dress in drag as tarty women. But the guys in the costumes dancing is AMAZING, they know how to make the long fur fly in patterns and swirls, its very skilled. It is NOT just wearing a costume.
Joulupukki is the nice version and nuuttipukki the scary one (by and large). In Finnish, "pukki" just means buck or ram. "Joulu" is Christmas and Nuut is the Finnish version of St. Knut (whose name day is often conflated with the Christian day of epiphany but "Saint" Knut wasn't a particularly nice fellow).
Here in Portugal in some reagions we have the ''Caretos'' who come out on the celebrations of Carnaval, which is right before the start the start of Lent (Carnaval is pretty much a way to lose your shit and let everything out before what is supposed to be a quite sober period of time). It's uncanny how plenty of these really look like them, it's so cool.
Is the Schnabelpercht related to the Kikimora? I mean, pointed nose, hates messy houses. Sounds similar. Also the german pronounciations where pretty good and not butchered. I have a polish GF and i still struggle with the name of her home town.
You have right. I`m Polish and it was very familiar view - this Schnabelpercht. Your comment really hepled me to connect dots. Kikimora also like to "work" like that.
Polish and Slovak traditions are NOT melting together!! We are not foreign to each other, we are ethnic brothers coming from the same source and our traditions come from the same source - our common Slavic ancestry. So the very opposite is true - our traditions used to be one and they have been divering over centuries.
2 года назад+15
yes, that’s what I meant, but maybe used the wrong word 😅 I meant that historically, it’s difficult to separate the traditions, since geographically it wasn’t always as clearly separated either
@ Even more so, historically - we have never melted, because historically we were one at thestart ;) We are un-melting now, rather than melting. No czaisz dziołszka, c'nie? ;) Po wsiach tak dzieciaki wciąż latają.
Thank you for talking about our Kuekri, Karolina ❤ The costumes come in all shapes and sizes, some have these really heavy bells attached to their belts, which are really loud when they dance, so that they can chase away the evil with the sound
I actually find Father Christmas slightly creepy. As it turns out, he's nothing compared to these creatures. Why, *why* , do they all have serial killer stares, and an excessive amount of teeth? You win, Meme Mom, you win.
@@desanipt yeah but Eastern Europe deserves some more attention, unlike Western one who is built on larger countries having the main role in america's history and are a lot more recognizable. You learn for it, you hear for it a lot more in general. A lot of people would not know and do not know for Easter Europe not to mention South-East Europe to exist by itself and not Russia or some other empire. We are just... kind of there, the peasants of larger empires and their history, of europe as continent, but this does not mean we do not have our culture.
In Colombia South-America around the end of the year, we have “Las Murgas” which are groups of people disguised as the death, the devil, an old person and voluptuous woman. They make folkloric music with drums and ask people for money. I think they are more connected with the end of the year and less with Christmas.
The Austrian creatures are called Perchten. They are most well know in the alpine regions of Austria. They will have a procession through the town and little children in those same costumes will run around and hit peoples shins with sticks. (I am not making this up I swear)
Sometimes the only way to make your toddler behave is to put fear in their heart but, you know, children being terrified of ther parents is not generally conductive to good family relationships? So, you gotta externalize the fear. But ah! If you promise the monster will come, you gotta deliver! Make good on ypur promise. And what better time of the year for the monster to come that in the darkest of days and longest of nights! The wisdom of the ancestors is truly great.
3rd century austrian peasant: yknow what we're gonna do? we're gonna cover ourselves in hay, and get gigantic antennas as well, how about that? other peasants: he's really got it im giggling so hard
It would be interesting to see the different traditions related to each costume. For example the best part of the Mari Lwyd is you have to sing battle it or it breaks in and steals your food. Fun.
I'm very sad we don't have a Christmas monster in the Netherlands.. :( But when I was on vacation in the Lötschental in Switzerland, we stumbled upon these creatures called Tschäggättu. There was a big parade with like 50 of them. They look pretty much like krampus or perchten, with the fur costume, bells and wooden masks. They would try to scare you or even grab you. It was so cool!
The Kukeri are my absolute favourites too, but the ones from Spain with all the plants and flowers were a pleasant surprise, did not know them but now I love them. If you like this kind of costumes check out the Mamuthones from Sardinia!
Re: the Christmas movie. A classic halmark movie, our mains are snowed in in a cabin somewhere in rural Europe and their falling in love, but keep getting interrupted by Carollers in increasingly bazaar outfits showing up to say “hey, give us food”
We had a Mari Lwyd in our school and when she wasn’t out and about she was stored under the stage. Which was fine until you forgot about it and had to go down there to get something and turned the terrible light on and BOSH! Face full of horse skull! Terrifying.
Finn here, hello, I can try to explain the differense between Joulupukki, Joulu pukki and Nuutipukki a little: Joulupukki: Santa. Or Christmasgoat if you will. (Yes we call Santa clause Christmasgoat) (btw he lives in Finland, in Korvatunturi.) Olkipukki: hay/straw goat. Also known as Joulu pukki/Christmas goat I think. Ornament, made out of hay. I dunno the origins really but the fact that Santa is literally called Christmasgoat makes it funny to place tiny (or bigger) "Christmas" goats (like they are actually goat shaped, unlike Santa) around the house. Nuutipukki: this tradition takes place after christmas. Nuutipukkis (nuuti goats) "come take christmas away". Kids can basically throw on anything they find around the house (so nuutipukki can pretty much look like anything really, but i think it often has some sort of fur items etc old looking things on, I dont think goat masks like the ones in the picture are that common but sure why not) and then they go from door to door and often sing a song or too and people give them christmas candy or any food really that is left from Christmas. Also the swedish Jule goat is basically the same thing as Olkipukki I think? But maybe they have compined it with Nuutipukki and have a similar tradition with it but under the same name with the ornament? Hopefully that helped😄
Oh weit yes originally Nuutipukki was an adult dressed up as a goat like the ones in the picture, but that must have been a long time ago. These days I guess the "tradition" is that kids dress basically the same way they do on halloween and go around asking for leftover candy, the costumes can be like spider-man outfits etc but also I think it used to be more common to dress in old clothes and furs and leather things etc.
About capra (literally means goat lol) : the first picture is a real capra, while the second is a cerb (the male deer, I have forgotten the word). They are similar, but they are part of some little theatre acts that are a lil different for capra and cerb (in the cerb game there are more hunters and I think less peasants than in the capra game, really the difference is very small)
Karolina *looking at the stuff from my nightmares*: oh, so cute.
Karolina *just seeing people covered with colorfull ribbons*: augh, disgusting.
Yeah, I liked the rainbow ribbon monsters for the dead of winter!
Привет, а ты случайно не русская?
@@Sofia-fp4mw русские вперёд
Русские вперёд
Русские вперёд
Русские вперёд
@@joyful_rage хахаах точно 😅❤🇷🇺 и я на половину финка, поэтому 🇫🇮
@@Sofia-fp4mw тогда... финны вперёд
Финны вперёд
Финны вперёд
Финны вперёд
Финны вперёд
“He looks like he would ask to eat you or not and I think that’s something that is so rare nowadays” 😂🤣😂 this can be interpreted in so many ways I love eeeeeet
Da meme mom always protecting her children from patriarchy
That part cracked me up 🤣🤣🤣
Yes!!!!
10/10
@@lesacapatate2949 I have NO idea what that comment means, and I LOVE IT!
We need to bring these costumes back into the mainstream immediately, Christmas is so much better with horse skulls paraded through town.
YES RIGHT ??? That's the winter stuff I want !!
I believe that they are called "Krampus walks" which are based around this tradition. People in America or modern western civilizations will dress up as Krampus or in similar attire and parade the streets late at night. They do it purely because Krampus is cool.
I completely agree! We need more weird creatures and costumes in the winter!
Yes!!!!
Still happening in Wales with the Mari lwyd, she was in my home town yesterday.
the European urge to dress as a creature for Christmas
I like this type of traditions. I wish we would still dress up more than just on halloween
I wish halloween would be more common here :(
Here in Sweden kids dress up for easter as "påskkärring" and "påskgubbe" which has it origins from the 1600's witch trials and go house to house to wish happy easter. And during the 13th of december we have a holiday called Lucia where mostly kids and teenagers in school dress up for the Luciatåg (lucia train) in white gowns, as gingerbread-men and "stjärngosse" and sing as a choir while holding a lit candle. The "lucia" wears a crown with candles.
@@aspannas true, there are those traditions in finland as well. I have not seen them in action in so long I have forgotten
@@ilona2921 Yeah I know Finnish people have some version of påskkärring and you also have celebrate lucia after it spread to Finland in the late 1800's from Sweden.
@@aspannas yes, finland and sweden have many similarities, seeing that finland was part of sweden for quite a time
I just wanted to mention "Capra" means also goat, and I'm starting to see a pattern of goats in european christmas costumes :))
And you mentioned about the bells, in Romania, especially in the northen region where I'm from, there are creatures made just from huge bells, and they jump around to make a really loud sound, they are called "Draci". And lastly, I loved your video so so much, keep up the good work and I wish you a merry Christmas:)
Yes. Goats were traditionally associated with the Devil. Maybe why popular images of Satan have him with horns.
De unde din nord ești? :) Întreb pt ca eu, de ex, sunt din jud. Suceava și la noi nu stiu sa fie obiceiul cu dracii
All of these Finnish Kekripukki, Joulupukki and Nuuttipukki-characters are a goat. Pukki means a goat. Goats for Yule everybody!
@@J_Gamble Before being associated with the devil the goat was associated with Pan, so I think that this is where all these goat traditions come from. Goats are associated with Satan because they thought Pan was Satan.
Wonder why Europeans focus on goats so much. This seems to be a deep engrained thing even before Chrstianity.
I feel Mari Lwyd would have scored higher if behaviour went into scores as well as appearance.
Basically, it appears at your door and demands *in song* to enter your house and drink all your alcohol, giving a reason why it may do so. You must *sing* a response reasoning why it may not. This goes back and forth, rap battle style, until one party can't come up with a new verse, at which point Mari Lwyd either leaves empty-handed or comes in and chugs all your beer.
And yet all most of us get is Christmas trees and Santa Claus, smh
What an amazing tradition! I wish it was more widely known!
Wow. I would lose every single time, lol.
"Did you drink ALL the alcohol?"
"no, it was a xmas rapping welsh forest spirit - honest!"
😂😂
@@mr.dalerobinson "What do you mean it sound sus that I lost a rap battle against a Welsh forest spirit? My head hurts because... all the singing."
I came here hoping to see my country's costumes and even tho I have never participated in any way other than a spectator, I felt a rush of patriotism when you gave our kukeri 1000/10.
Same here! I was so excited to see the kukeri getting some love
Girl, same
Absolutely! Felt so excited when she mentioned Kukeri
Haha same
Love catching them in Blagoevgrad when I am in town.
In Portugal there's a famous techno music group called "karetus" which got its name from traditional Carnival masked men from northeastern Portugal (called "caretos"), similar to the ones in this video.
The group usually goes to shows dressed like them
Wow um pt aqui!! Ia mesmo agr referir os caretos tbm!!
Thank you for mentioning these. The costumes are awesome. So many good colors!
@@dinossauruwu3395 onde vai um português vão logo dois ou três 😉
I just looked up the caretos, and those costumes are so cool!
Cheguei tarde.
Yes, more of our creepy, traditional, European weirdness!
Yes! Cant get enough of that and on her channel?? Yes please
I love it! I wish we had stuff like this here in the southern United States. We have our weird legends...like the Devils Tramping Ground near where I live. Or the Beast of Bladenboro...They're a little bit cool.
Wait till you learn about gypsis
@@horridus2842 Romani’s*
@@lucyhill9125 no
The gyspy is a gypsy
6:51 those are not "Lucifer's little helpers" , those are in all probability Perchten.
Perchten are a mostly Austrian tradition. They run around with Saint Nicholas and scare little children, so they're a little like Krampus but still different because it's older and not really a Christian tradition but a pagan one.
Depending on where you are in Austria, Perchten are BIG deal and there are public "runs" where a group of Perchten, called a "Pass" perform together.
I live in Salzburg and Perchten are well loved here - every year there's a Perchtenlauf in the city for the different Passen to show off their costumes and it's a big event: ruclips.net/video/EpaP_182I2E/видео.html
thanks!
Same here in southern Germany. I still remember being told not to run away from them, so they wouldn't make you their target.
perchten can be verz regional so some are scary, some are ridiculous. typical for mountain regions every valley is kinda unique since there was little contact (also from Austria btw. )
@@melanieg.9092 u mean Tirol? XD In NÖ we all hide when Tirol ones come
I wish it showed another angle, so you can see the big bells on their backs/bums. They looked like baboons to me.
Mari Lwyd is basicly a way to try and get into someone's house for food and drink with the power of a horse's skull and song for anyone who did not know.
I think most of the creatures are basically a free pass for a drink
@ merry Christmas and a happy New Year from Ireland xxx 21st of December xx
In Newfoundland, Canada they're called Mummers. Basically, a bunch of your drunk neighbours show up at your kitchen door, sweep on in, drink and play fiddle music while eating food. Did I mention the drinking...
We need this on the mainland of the continent.
- Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown/Pimisi
*"Thus giving the illusion that famine himself has come to destroy all your figgy pudding."*
*-Sam O'Nella*
I read "power of horse's skull" and got flashbacks to an exorcism ala "The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ compels you!".
I think I've had too much coffee.
I need to calm down.
Well, there are theories that many of the Christian celebrations were purposely put on a date that would coincide with previous native European religious celebrations so that it would be easier to convert people to Christianism.
The one I've seen getting the most discussion is Christmas being celebrated exactly at the same period the Romans used to celebrate Saturnalia (when the exact date Jesus was born in is unkown).
It's either that or the people adapting their own religious celebrations to the new ones being imposed.
This last one was also seen in a lot of the world when Europeans went on to push Christianity throughtout the world, with animist-christian blends in Africa, for example.
In the end, we're just a blend of everyone that came before us and the people they interacted with, despite of how hard people have tried to destroy certain parts of one's cultural heritage.
It's the year that we aren't sure about. The month can actually be estimated, due to the setting and Jewish holidays and traditions described in the Bible. Which would put Jesus' birthday in April/Spring. We don't celebrate it there mostly because Resurrection is the most important holiday in Catholicism, so it pushes all the other celebrations to other days. The Saturnalia date was definitely picked to takeover Roman holidays, but also any holidays resolving around the Sun movements (as it is the shortest day of the year, which created hundreds of local festives).
It’s called syncretism.
True. Moreover, christian traditions and rituals have pagan origins.
Yeah wasn't the Christmas tree also a pagan thing first?
@@mjm3091 I've heard that it was September because of the position of the stars and the Shepard's still being out
Karolina never disappoints with her content. Always with her own perspective and always making it hilariously informative.
Hope everyone who reads this has a wonderful holiday season!
I love all of these creatures so much. It's a shame these traditions didn't really carry over into US traditions but every year I do see more and more Krampusse around, especially in Chicago and in the Northeast! Thanks for sharing Charles Freger's photography as well, I love it so much! :]
How nice to see you here, Kaz! Your video on the subject was fantastic, btw!
America has influence of the Ashkenazi Jews instead of the Sephardic Jews, you can figure out most american culture from that fact.
That's because US has no culture
Portland has it too, in the Pacific Northwest. We had our pics taken with Krampusse last year and it was almost like Halloween never ended. Not complaining!
@@chantehr5748 nooo((
Everyone has, in their own unique way. Traditions don't need to be from Stone Age to be valuable)
In Russia we also don't have this very tradition, or it is forgotten ("people used to wear masks and sing for a treat" is everything you get from schoolbooks). But there are other traditions, older, newer, nwm. And we can appreciate those who don't forget theirs. Yeah, we don't have it, but it's so cool they do!
"It's kind of cute how she doesn't have skin... or meat .... but is still trying to give herself a glow-up" this is the reason you are a delight to watch
I am ashamed that as Slovak person I've never heard of chriapa, she seems cute.
To the yule goat/joulupukki similarities, it's mostly because joulu = christmas (or yule, you can see the similarities of these two words and as Finnish was influenced by Swedish in the past, it makes sense), pukki = goat. So they have definitely come from the same origins and then they developed a bit on their own.
Yule goat was also popular in Estonia... we called it näärisokk :)
finnish person here, joulupukki is santa claus, this is nuuttipukki
@@sourcandyxxx this I am aware of, but I've also always though it is more recent transformation and that in more folklorish context he may have retained a bit of his original appereance
@@Mielikkiii maybe, im not very educated on this, but the names modern usage is definitely just for santa rly
@@sourcandyxxx his name actually comes from Saint Knut, who is an entirely different saint than Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas Day is the 5th of December, while saint Knut's is the 13th of January. Saint Knut is often symbolized as a goat, not exactly sure why.
Worth to mention that these caroling groups are also composed out of other, heavily regional takes on universal beliefs and characters that take on different roles! My favorite ones (and typical for the region I come from) is Gwiazdor (Star-man), an old bearded man literally coming from the stars and symbolizing our elders’ souls, and Gwiazdka (Little Star), the all-white goddess of stars and underworld. The pair is leading the other dressed-up carolers while visiting homes and giving out candies and/or small punishments to children.
What region are you from?
That's fascinating! Thank you for sharing. :)
@pawiooka Wielkopolska? Gwiazdor is nowadays an equivalent of Santa Calus, but I remember my grandma's story how he used to be rather scary type back in her childchood.
Stars AND the underworld? Sounds very Persephone...
yeah it reminds me in the CIS region we have the Ded Moroz (Granddad Frost - Santa Claus) that is always assisted by his granddaughter Snegurochka (snow girl).
The consistent part about Snegurochka is that an old pair made a snowman and wished it to be their daughter so she comes to life while it's winter, but melts once spring comes around (she symbolically dies (gets killed by her friends) during the coming of the spring celebrations). There's also a second story but that one was written in the 50's. It starts the same and she again gets murdered by her friends but this time she is revived.
But nowadays she represents the Ded Moroz's little helper and is often depicted in children's media.
The Romanian guy and Turoń look like they could share a handshake. Or a friendly nudge with horns, since they don't seem to have arms.
Yeah, the capra (romanian for goat) is a big stick with the head on top and the dancers have to hold it.
So yeah, no hands for the capra!
I didn't know there are so many hairy-goat-devil-peasant-winter-dressup traditions. The ones in Hungary are called Busó and I think they are supposed to scare away the winter. And they burn straw people, so there is that.
yes, and i think it's in the beginning of spring to scare away the winter, because it was long or something? i'm not too sure though
in poland we have „marzanna” which is a goodness of death, it’s a straw doll that is set on fire and thrown into the river, idk if people still do that since it’s not very environmental friendly
In Russia we have a week of maslenitsa where we burn a straw doll that's supposed to be Winter. We also make blini(Russian crepe pancakes) and stuff, some people also make syrniki(cottage cheese pancakes). I think in Ukraine they make syrniki and vareniki(sweet or potato/mushroom dumplings)
@@raywa5821 that sounds very cool! and since the british have guy fawkes night where they also burn a straw person, although for different reasons, it may not disappear.
@@Belle-zq3xc this also sounds really cool! and the food just sounds delicious! now i've got food to research, so thank you!
Growing up in Romania I was so scared of the Capra that I would hide under the couch or table 😅. The Capra (goat) makes a loud noise and you have "handlers" coming to your house with it singing (to calm it down) and asking for offerings. Usually offerings would be fruits and nuts, baked goods, alcoholic beverages and more recently money.
When I was in kindergarten, we performed the Capra during an Xmas matinee. It was fun, i was the handler. 😁
My cousins used to make bank going around with the Capra in the early 2000s (I wasn't allowed to go because my mum thought it was dangerous).
"they check your farm to see if it's clean, and if it's not they take your wife, they cut her stomach and they put all the mess they found into her stomach" ... I see the patriarchy was always so subtle
Karolina: “Oh these are so cute!”
Me: *visibly horrified by literally every creature depicted*
There was a small, hardly ever used storage room in my rural school. The most scary and fascinating thing that lived there was a massive turoń head on a stick, covered in dust and spiders. It was around when my father attended the school, he remembers it being used, so that thing had enough time to become freaky
I just LOVE how each European country has these bizarre traditions in their "country side". It's disturbing yet amazing.
Actually, you may find several different traditions in each country. In Germany alone you will find at least 5 different ones, as they come from different cultures that lived in the areas simultaneously. Just about the one who brings presents on christmas, it's either St. Nikolaus, Christmas man (literal translation, don't judge me pls), baby christ, an angel, Jesus himself, a holy spirit and what not.
@@olgahein4384 yea and you can find this worldwide too. In bigger countries such as France, you have so many islands scattered around the world that have their own celebrations related to their places. Even Corsica, though it's considered metropolitan France, has not one, not two, but several different kinds of celebrations and carnivals. The harshest the travelling conditions are, the more secluded the places, and the more different cultures you can find, even in one place.
Rather than country-wise, it's more fascinating that humankind as a whole ends up having more or less similar customs, despite huge differences in both cultures and habits.
@@olgahein4384 yeah we in poland have starman, little angel, and even baby jesus bringing presents lmao
About Joulupukki and Nuuttipukki. Nuutti is the older og version of the creature and arrives on Nuutti's day (13.1.) to end the Yule season, by taking all your left overs. Joulupukki is the modern creature which for a time was a compination of Nuuttipukki and Saint Nick. He would give gifts to good children and murder the naughty ones. Original Nuuttipukki had nothing to do with children specifically.
Don't forget about Kekripukki! The one who goes around the Finnish All hallows eve, or Kekri. These all are different representations of a goat-like creature, like in so many other European traditions.
I love how casually you mention child-murder by one of these pukki. 😂
Fun fact: Nuuttipukki was often a very drunk young man
Yeah, I think we've gotten all these pukkis kinda mixed up, even in the heads of native Finns. Nuuttipukki is one thing, and then kekri- and köyripukki (which is. two different names for the same creature...? kekri is the holiday so i suppose köyri is too and they're just different regional dialects), who went around kinda similarly to my understanding, collecting leftovers and alcohol specifically from the houses in the village? As kekri is a harvest festival. I heard somewhere it'd be usually in the neighboring village, not their own, but I'm not sure where I heard that. Then it was on either Nuutti's day or on kekri that if you didn't give the leftovers/alcohol the pukkis asked for, they might wreck your like oven/fireplace? Then Joulupukki today is just the word we use for essentially Santa, even though he's. Just a guy and not a goat. Joulupukki was apparently (according to wikipedia so take it with a grain of salt) born when the gift-giving St. Nikolaus, a practice which arrived to Finland in the 1800s, and the nuuttipukki tradition, which was much older, mixed and melded together. Up until the 1960s or so joulupukki wore grey, but then American culture and Coca Cola spread the image of Santa in red and thus it spread to Finland too. The man who drew the illustration of the first Coca Cola ad with a Santa dressed in red apparently had roots in Åland from his dad's side! Interesting.
Is that why the crime rate is low in Finland, throughout the years u just killed children that showed any sign of violent traits so only the good people could reproduce?
karolina should make one of these costumes, and make it distinguished
Yes, we definitely need a Restoration Mari Lwyd. Or an Edwardian Kapra.
Ms. Tatternickle as a beast would be interesting 🤔 !
I am Romanian and this video is just 👌also the *someone breaking the wall* is so relatabe. I think there is a deep connection between Eastern European people and the drill.
Anyway very nice content. I wish people would know more about these traditions and I think your video shares the knowledge in a very fun way. Love your channel and Merry Christmas🎄💝
I wish we weren't so eager to adopt Americanization in the 90's; maybe these traditions would have been more prominent. I mean, they survived christianization and communism, but it seems Americanization is what will finally kill them. So painful. 😓😓😓
@@georgeoldsterd8994 they are still extant in the country side. Hell, my parents live in the suburb of the capital city of my country, and we still get people dressed up in these folk costumes on New Year and Christmas (they celebrate Christmas old style in this suburb, so it's on January 7th, rather than December 25th).
I haven't laughed like this in a while...
This makes me proud to be European :D
So, tiny correction the first ones called Arapides are from the region in northern Greece called Macedonia, not Northern Macedonia the country. They come out on Epiphany day and symbolize rebirth and the coming of a new year (and spring). Fun fact: they are split in two teams and fight each other, one of the leaders dies, gets resurrected and afterwards they all celebrate and dance together😅
I was hoping to find this comment! I think it’s from Drama, or nearby?
@@russergee49 Yes, pretty close to Drama, it's from a village in Kavala!
Thank you!!
I was so confused because I'm from northern macedonia and I had to look them up
Χαίρομαι που δεν ήμουν η μόνη που έκανε αυτό το σχόλιο.
Καλές γιορτές.
I once was on a business trip in the deepest parts of the austrian country side and went for a walk with my collegues in the evening. Suddenly there was a the sound of a cow bell running towards us and we know that the Perchten (Austrian Krampus) came after us. We had to run away so they won’t slap us with their rods. It was so creepy and I loved it! It‘s really fun knowing that a bunch of them were like 10 year old children that made the grown ups run away screaming! (My collegues were montegerians and serbians from the city, so they‘ve never seen these things) Love knowing that there are even more things to run away from now.
Haha. Btw, Perchten are not the Austrian Krampus', Perchten have a different background and we have both in our country. Krampus is the companion of St. Nicholas and punishes unruly kids with his rod. Perchten are supposed to drive away bad spirits during Winter and therefore can be considered lucky charms :)
Kukeri depend from region to region, in some it is like a mini-play. Every member of the group is assigned a specific role in a story - the king/tzar, the granny, the horse, the bear, etc.Symbolically, the Kukeri actors often act out a wedding, sowing, harvesting, and other rituals meant to preserve the natural order.
A costume is either inherited or sewn by its owner. The same goes for the bells, that they wear, usually handed down over the generations. Some of the bells weigh no less up to 100 kg(not sure how much that is in lbs). The bells are worn around one's waist. The masks are usually constructed from wood and covered in colorful yarn threads, fur, animal teeth, beads, and horns.
Back in the day, the Kukeri would go from door to door and perform their magical dances in front of the people. Nowadays this tradition is gradually disappearing, and the Kukeri monsters perform at big festivals and specially organized events.
It is believed that Kukeri originate from Thracian traditions of the Thracian cult of Dyonisus (who was one of their main gods because boy did the Thracians love to party).
oh very cool explanaition! This sound very similar to some Perchten Play's in Austria with the old lady character and so on
@@melanieg.9092 Glad to hear you enjoyed it! I think it is interesting how we, Europeans, have so many similar traditions, yet we fight over how different we are.
@@dianadzhenkova4343 Yeah I often think especially in the countryside there are so many common traditions
"100 kg" - are you sure? That's kind of a lot for a person or even group of people to carry around all day, not to mention playing.
@@georgeoldsterd8994 I believe it is so, based on different interviews with men who taken place with it. But maybe if it is so heavy they wear only one.
Alternate Title: Immortal European stumbles across people cosplaying as her ancient buddies for Christmas
these are all nuts. i love it.
We (Romanians) have the “capra” (the goat) from pre-Roman, pre-Christian times when the population was northern Thracian (we have a lot of fantastic masks too). It’s more of a New Year tradition, not really Christmas related, like most of our pagan origin holidays it’s related to the nature’s cycles. It’s interesting that peoples and nations that formed via the Slavs migration much later have this goat-like creature too, I didn’t know that, no idea how it was spread to Slavs. It’s not just us being pre-slavic, albanians are too.
From what I can tell there’s like 4 large groups of creatures in this video, all seem to be related to nature, harvest, winter renewal: a largely east european group (goats, bears, deer), a celtic one, a german and scandinavian one and a finnic and baltic group.
My mum is from the South of Moldova and they have a Căluțul (little horse) instead of the usual Capra (aka goat). Căluțul is usually accompanied by some demon-like masked men with whips who whip anyone who's naughty, and some cossacks in their full military uniforms. It's apparently only a thing for the little village she's from, since everyone around them just has the typical Capra. And it's also a New Year's thing, rather than a Christmas thing.
Speaking of the Sweden's famous 'Yule Goat' it was set on fire … again. Do yourself a favor and Google this it's an epic tale. Atlas Obscura even made a timeline of "The Unfortunate Fates of the Gavle Goat" I lost it at the guys who dressed up and shot fire arrows, but the attempted helicopter kidnapping was good too.
Those Swedes do be a determined bunch.
If they vandalise, they're going to do it *in style*
This is some true xmas spirit✊
Finally got some christmas spirit when I heard the news of it burning again!
giant yule goat: exists
swedes: *it's arson time*
Yule goat: I haft cometh to bring thee back the light of day!
Swedish lads: Hehe. Straw goat.
Yule goat: If that's how you're going to take it... A THOUSAND YEARS OF NIGHT IT IS!
Me: "wow these Northerners are really weird"
Karolina: "then we have the trapajones from Spain"
Me: "yup completely normal"
As your fellow Pole I wanted to share something about tradition from district in my small city B) So basically you have this hierarchy of four beings you can dress up as: babka (grandma??), kominiarz (chimney-sweep?), diabełek (devil) and "dziad". The last one is the most interesting in my opinion. Costume of "dziad" contains: belt with bells, lash (strap on a stick), and tall hat with year and mask attached to it called "ciaka" (something similiar to those hats from 2:34-2:42) that matches pants and jacket (sometimes there are some tassels on it or paintings on the hat). To run as dziad, first you have to run as babka, diabełek and then kominiarz. You also have to be unmarried male and be born in this part of the city (even though all of the rules were ignored a lot of times...). Every New Year's Eve each person from the group gets their own round, metal plate with a number. They have their own eucharist, go to some houses to sing highlander carols and then run trought the whole district stopping in the half of a bridge that connects it to the rest of the city. Unfortunately I noticed that year by year the group gets smaller :( This tradition was meant to "drive away bad sprits"
wooo, seems interesting, never heard of it
What if Spirited Away but european and instead of a bathhose full of yokai, it's a european christmas and carnival creatures.
Quick, call Cartoon Saloon!
The Welsh one is like the un-cursed version of the Cornish (Southern England) Penglaz the Obby Oss who still wanders about at the Winter Solstice. Still a horse skull but only comes out at night and has flowers on his head. A very rare demon baby.
I've always seen the Obby Oss at May Day festivals in Padstow, I'd describe him like a demonic spinning top but still very horse-like!
the difference between nuuttipukki and joulupukki(who is the santa claus) is that nuuttipukki came into houses and drank last drinks and ate the last foods left from chrismant and didnt give gifts.
Lol so nuuttipukki is that uncle who only comes to visit during Christmas for the booze and probably mixes you up with your siblings
@@vocasoti 😂
I hate how little we learn about other cultures here in the US, these are so cool. Thanks for sharing!
I think some of it has to do with so many generations of people giving up their unique cultural traditions in order to fit in to the mainstream of society better. "Mainstream" in the US still largely based solidly on fairly strict Anglo-Protestantism that purposely did away with folk traditions and looked down on people who kept them still (at best--plenty of people were hanged early on...)
when they do show something then the end up in a movie like Krampus --- that was awful.
As child I was afraid of the Krampus but as he came together with St Nikolaus a nice present was given .
Same problem in Russia. Soviet tendencies in educational system avoided any religious context in historical studies. And nowadays we have an “orthodox revival” social trend but it mostly comes from the totalitarian empowerment and has no common neither with slavish traditional culture nor with Christianity that took place before the revolution while Russia was an empire.
you have no shortage of indigenous culture in the USA but if you cannot find the right teachers start a campaign. If you are interested in the idea of imported cultures read [ don't watch ] Gaiman's American Gods
@@hi-ve1cw Dyring the Victorian era and then the Wirld Wars these traditions were staunchly revived as acts of 'cultural resistance'. Either as resistance to the metropolitanisation of cities (and how the countryside was idealised as 'clean' alongside the seaside), or as a resistance to the fear if literal fireign invasion.
It's waned in the decades since, but the general move away from organised religion in Britain has led yo some seeking out the old festivals as they now have a 'calendar based celebrations' sized whole in their life once again.
The flawless 'joulupukki' made me jump, bc nobody ever remembers our finnish ye old joulu traditions 😭💜
Nuuttipukki: scary pukki, who appears at the end of the joulu time. they go from house to house and made noise and ruckus and sometimes sang. They demanded christmas leftover food and beer and if they didn't get that, they would make some mischief or pranks.
Now joulupukki: more like a santa claus nowdays, formerly nuuttipukki.
These traditions vary depending on the region in Finland, in some areas nuuttipukkis are children who "trick or treat". Joulu used to be minor holiday and the time to mourn the dead, eat well and relax with family, now it's become more western and changed majorly.
I love how folklore these creatures look
100/10 for creativity
As a swede, I'm sad to say that I have never seen a yule goat costume in real life.
We all seem to have at least one yule goat made of straw to bring out for christmas though.
I met a julbock once when I was a child. He was kind of like santas sidekick and santa told all us children that he could never deliever all presents if it wasn't for the yule goats help to carry them and we all thanked the yule goat 😊
@Gulleko kom till Östersund! Här finns julbocken
In Latvia this tradition is called ķekatas, not something i can translate tho. I dont think we have regular character, or Im not aware of them, except Laimes Lācis (Bear of Happines/Good Fortune) which i think i recognized in the Czech costume. The Bear gets brought in a leash from home to home to bring joy and good tiding for the next year.
There are actually lots of regular characters among Latvian ķekatnieki, as far as I can remember there is always Dzērve (Crane), Nāve (Death), Kaza (Goat) and several others that I can't remember now. But yeah, there's the whole shebang, as with other similar European pagan traditions.
That's really interesting! In Russia we also have a tradition of bringing a person in a bear consume on a leash for good luck! I don't think it has a name tho and It's a little niche
@@sangri03 exaxtly! Besides those, there is also the Wolf (vilks) and my favourite, the Haystack (siena kaudze).
In Ukraine the main character for this carol festival/carnival is Koza (The Goat), but there are a lot of other characters involved depending on a day. Main part of celebration (its climax) takes place from January 6 to January 15.
якраз шукала українців, одразу згадала про різдвяний вертеп)
That's similar to Russia, at least to my region, there's also the old new years celebration on January 13-14th with dumplings with secrets in them and stuff haha
Same in Belarus. Koza is the absolute Star of the show :)
Christmas in the world : Let us all Celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ
Christmas in Europeans : Everyone hide creatures of the night is coming to eat our Children
This December I cosplayed as: Frau Perchta, a Krampus and a Mari Lwyd. NO. FREAKING. REGRETS! They are for who loves the spooky and cannot wait until next Halloween! XDDD
That’s crazy ! I work with kids in a small town in Alsace (north East of France) and those creatures seemed familiar to me… Then I remembered : more than 10 years ago, I worked from an exhibition of Charles Freger! Kids had to talk about their cultural traditions and we created an artwork with all that. That was really a good experience, I had totally forgotten about it ! Thank you for the reminder. And sorry for my bad English !
Du coup, je suis curieuse, il y a des photos de créatures d'Alsace dans les photos sur son site ? Il indique l'Alsace dans le résumé sur le site mais pas dans les descriptions des photos...
En Alsace on a le père fouettard. Le Hans Trop qui apparament était une vrai personne et dans mon village quand mon grand père était petit y avait vraiment un mec qui se deguissait et foutait les enfants dans un sac les enfants pour les faire peur. Il les amenait dans la forêt et tout. Mon grand père c'était fait taper à la place d'un autre gamin parce que le gars c'était tromper de maison.
Mais quand j'étais petite pour moi il ressemblait à un vieux de mauvaise humeur, des gros pied poilus, avec une gueule de méchant et une matraque / batte de base-ball/ bâton pour te tabasser avec et un sac.
Lovely to see mari lwyd getting a mention, i wish the tradition would become a bit more popular nowadays cause I've never experienced it, but i live in a city so no surprise there
Cymru am byth 🏴♥️
where to are you ? because there is a Mari at Pontipridd and one in Caerdydd etc
@@cadileigh9948 unfortunately casnewydd has let it pass us by 😂
They are all scary!! I remember as a Child in Germany we were always afraid that „Knecht Ruprecht“ would take away our presents . If we didn‘t behave before christmas we were threatened with him :D
not gonna lie, if I was a peasant child back in the day I would’ve shat myself every year at the very thought of these 😶
@ absolutely! I always made sure the gate in the backyard was locked the days before christmas. I mean Knecht Ruprecht wouldn‘t just walk in through the front gate, at least that‘s what I thought would keep him away :D
@ my mom grew up in a small village that had a very *specific* tradition of this kind around New Year's eve when people covered in sheep fleece (preety much like the first ones in the video, but white) would agressively play drums and whistle and basically frocefully jokingly entering your houses. Needless to say, my mom is terrifies of Christmas/New Year traditions to this day, even though now she lives in a city where all of these are carefully organized and peacefull. The trauma is real
I know the feelings about Knecht Ruprecht very well. We were told he catches the naughty children in his sack and takes them to the woods. My uncle experienced this as a child for educational reasons, but he returned safely... And my Grandma told us, if we were out in the dark the "Nachtfrau" (woman of the night) would get us. There was also a witch in the village, but my Grandma refused to tell us who it was, but she knew... lovely peasant life
In the Netherlands we have kind of the same tradition (even though it was under heavy fire the past 10 years). We celebrate Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas) on the fifth of December. He is a Christian saint that originally comes from Turkey (Mira), but most traditional songs indicate he comes from Spain together with his helpers, Zwarte Piet. If you behaved, then Zwarte Piet would give you candies and Sinterklaas would give you some presents, but if you were a naughty kid you would, depending on your level of naughtiness, either get a bag of salt instead of candies, get slapped by his twig bunch, or put into an empty presents bag and taken with Sinterklaas to Spain to train as a helper instead.
My parents once gave my brother a bag of salt because he threw a tantrum, bu tmost of the time being threatened to be taken away to Spain by Zwarte Piet would do the trick xD
I'm so glad you covered this! I used to live in Poland and I write fantasy. In my recent book I based a lot of the magic on Slavic folklore and the winter costumes made an appearance.
The German one looks like a rejected 60s dr.who alien species. Whether that is a good thing or not I have yet to decide.
Croatia has different regional takes on these as well, most known ones, I think, are Zvončari, from "zvono" meaning bell. They are covered in fur, wear scary masks and cow bells (this combo seems to be a trend in Slavic countries), but they appear for Carnival, nor Christmas. The bells they wear are supposed to scare the winter away and bring forth good weather.
Bulgaria Rocks! Those flowy, floofy towers of Bric-girl hair flip are simply fantastic.
And I now need to see a four year old dressed as a giant broomstick. This needs to be memed into existence.
All the very best of the Season to you and to everyone of The Cos Tube. May it be filled with rest. May it be filled with joy. And filled with regeneration. See you on the other side of the New Year.
- Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown/Pimisi
It makes me sad, thinking about how many of these old traditions slowly fade into obscurity. I am sure there are (or were) tons of these where I live, that I have never heard of, because they have become so rare. This makes me despise the spread of Halloween even more.
Sometimes it's also the Americanisation in the form of PC that makes them obscure.
It's difficult to take a tradition and then twist and twist and turn it into PC-proof traditions, without destroying everything it stood for, everything you wanted to avoid changing and also traumatize some kids in the process.
I'm not talking about scaring kids or violence ofcourse, as a child-daycare worker, I don't necessarily think you have to keep holding onto that.
Oh me too, so many amazing old traditions all over Europe that are getting lost. This video is great, it's like a small archive!
Well, I don't know about other places, but in Portugal there only one such similar figure called "caretos" which traditionally comes out on Carnival in a few villages in Northeastern Portugal.
And they are REALLY well known throughout the country to the point that those villages get crowded with tourists every year arround Carnival. It really became a marker of those villages and it dinamizes the region arround that period of the year. I don't see it disappearing anytime soon because of how lucrative it became to a place that usually doesn't get much attention, movement or dynamism.
But I don't know how that plays in other countries. I do believe that it is so unique and different from what people are used to that there's a chance to not only preserve them but make them an asset for the regions they belong to.
Blame the spread of Christianity as well.
@@MezzoForte4 much as I'd like to, Christianity is, ironically, the reason these traditions have reached us in the first place.
I am a little disappointed that there was no mention of "cigarróns", "peliqueiros" nor "boteiros" from the galician carnival (entroido) in northwestern Spain :( ... but alas, Karolinas content is always great
In Brazil we have a tradition where cow dressed men go house to house singing and dancing. It's linked with the Three Wise Men tradition and it used to scary me! I can see inspiration camming from various of these!
"When does Krampus show up for the nativity scene?"
"He doesn't"
eurovision, christmas edition
It cracks me up to see all of these non-European folks in the commnent be nicely disturbed by our folklore creature, that I'm just like...
"Oh man, and that's not all we have, fairytales and other creatures unknown to you (just for exmp. from my czech folklore we have Morana, Polednice, Vodník...so on), that you'd be really like - how you can find this normal?!"but trust me when you live with this your whole life it's ju like that
Idk, there are plenty of disturbing folk creatures from around the world. They just haven't had their moment of fame yet. At least in South Asian (and to some extent south-east asian) folklore, Gods and even people end up with animal forms. Evil demon creatures straight up take on animalistic forms.
Yay for europians coming together! (coming from a Ukrainian :D)
Same thing in Latvia, we call it " Ķekatas". We have those haystack things, animal skull things on a stick with the blanket, devils and some random tall woman with her short husband lol. I never new that this was a tradition all over Europe🤔
Yass I was hoping Mari Llwyd would get a mentioned, she's much loved in Wales! I think the tradition is that she goes around asking for poems, and if they don't give her poems she trashes their house... Or something. 😁
nah, she has a song battle against the locals asking to be let into their houses so she can get have some food and alcohol and the homeowners have to try and convince her not to. Like rap battling a horse skeleton to keep your booze
@@lazyperfectionist3978 Iawn
OK,OK, now I have an urge to put some more info about Čerti (Devils) in Czechia :D It's not specifically Christmas tradition, it's tradition on St. Nicholas day 6.12. (Mikuláš). And the masks are hugely different from district to district, from town to town, even between 20 km range of villages, they are different. Like every village have it's own uniqe form of Čerti and St. Nicholas and Angels and their helpers.
So, I was little dissapointed when I saw just one picture of Czech Čert and not the whole group.
Here is video about few of them, sorry about the quality, I was lookig for the biggest range of differencies and still I miss few of them.
ruclips.net/video/JgvLaAccIjM/видео.html
The point of all of this - St. Nicholas (Mikuláš) with his group of devils, angels and their helpers is going from house to house and he is asking little kids if they were true and kind, if yes, the Angel (Anděl) will give them sweets, if not, the Devil (Čert) will give them potatoes or coal (in the past, the devil put a child in a sack and shaked them or beated them with broom or pitchwork). Kids then have to pray to the God. Currently, they will make a foto together :D
Aaand then, bigger kids from all the village are waiting outside and are waiting for the group. And devils will start to play chase and catch with hands full of coals and they will be trying to paint the faces of these kids. Kids are playing, who will have less painted face. And because devils are very heavy with lot of fur and bells, they have chase helpers - they are very ligh clothed and very good runners. They can be characters of Death (Smrt) , Rainbow man (Laufr), Bear (Medvěd). In the past there were Judes (Žid) or Turks (Turek), but now it's not used anymore. It's very likely, that there are more of them, just not in my distance.
@@justmeiam4996 Yes, there was communist pressure to ban any of these traditions and replace them with Morozko but as far as I know (and I have prove photos) that angels and St. Nicolas were still the thing in that time.
@@justmeiam4996 Jo, Děda Mráz, Mrazík. Je mi líto, že u vás to tak dopadlo, tady u nás sa opravdu ty tradice držaly zuby nechty. No, když už zakázali anděly, tak taky zkoušeli zakázat Mikuláše jako hlavního svatého, který dělá tu kontrolu, Svatou Lucii, Barborku, celé Vánoce s koledama, Ježíškem a žranicí, fašanky/masopust, vynášání Morany, celé Velikonoce, Svatojánské ohně a další, jenže ono to vydrželo.
@@justmeiam4996 that's hella weird, bc i was born 34 years ago, in USSR, and Cherti were in lots of fairytales and cartoons, mentioned in songs and movies, even the oldest, black-and-white.
I would rather blame Church for stripped us from all the traditions and heritage. It blended really poorly.
Morozko, at least, is one of ancient spirits. It was him, who was later changed for st. Nicolay by church. And now Church wants its power back again. They already try to ban abortions, in different countries.
Nah, i'd prefer old good atheism with a nostalgic flavour of paganism. Cherti, ryazhenyje, lichiny, Kolyada - bring them all back!
@@justmeiam4996 ouch, that was the "i have the same leg and it doesn't hurt" moment, i guess😅
@@justmeiam4996 if you didn't, you would never answer. Wanting to hurt someone this bad means you feel hurt yourself. Hope you'll get better soon.
Same human being, as you.
It's interesting: here in Hungary we also have little devil called "krampusz" and it comes with Mikulás (Saint Nikolas) on dec. 6th. and punishing the kids whose been naughty. The long red tongue and all-black suit is typical. The caroling in December is biblical here, but in the next months we have "Farsang" when everyone wear costumes (and eating sweet bakery products); with "Busójárás" (Busó-walking). Busó looks pretty similar to the creatures in the video, but they come after new year to scare off the winter. ❄👹🌱
Here in Czech Republic, we have the same tradition - but Mikuláš with angel and čert(basically devil, or the German version, Krampus) come the night before 6th. It's a lot of fun, though kids get a bit too scared sometimes.
@@katerinacerna8555 In Slovakia too.
Saw the Bulgarian 1000/10 ones at the musical instrument museum in AZ.
They are awesome and remind me of the Elbonians from Dilbert.
3:20 10/10 would feed him cookies.
How fascinating! turron, is also a Christmas Spanish sweet made out of toasted almonds
I somehow never imagined this happens all over Europe. One of our (Latvian) costumes is just straight up Death and I love that for us.
I would just love to br a fly on the wall when our ancient pagan ancestors came up with these wild creatures.
*6:20** I LIVE IN BULGARIA* and I watch the goatskin covered dancers every year - they are AMAZING - the guys have to be super fit cos they weigh so much and they are so HOT inside.
It is to scare away the winter - used in about March. The other thing they have the same day is all the biggest and most macho men dress in drag as tarty women.
But the guys in the costumes dancing is AMAZING, they know how to make the long fur fly in patterns and swirls, its very skilled. It is NOT just wearing a costume.
Joulupukki is the nice version and nuuttipukki the scary one (by and large).
In Finnish, "pukki" just means buck or ram. "Joulu" is Christmas and Nuut is the Finnish version of St. Knut (whose name day is often conflated with the Christian day of epiphany but "Saint" Knut wasn't a particularly nice fellow).
Also Kekripukki, around Kekri or Finnish All Hallows eve.
Here in Portugal in some reagions we have the ''Caretos'' who come out on the celebrations of Carnaval, which is right before the start the start of Lent (Carnaval is pretty much a way to lose your shit and let everything out before what is supposed to be a quite sober period of time). It's uncanny how plenty of these really look like them, it's so cool.
Outro pt! Haha nunca pensei em encontrar aqui portugueses!
Is the Schnabelpercht related to the Kikimora? I mean, pointed nose, hates messy houses. Sounds similar.
Also the german pronounciations where pretty good and not butchered. I have a polish GF and i still struggle with the name of her home town.
You have right. I`m Polish and it was very familiar view - this Schnabelpercht. Your comment really hepled me to connect dots. Kikimora also like to "work" like that.
Polish and Slovak traditions are NOT melting together!! We are not foreign to each other, we are ethnic brothers coming from the same source and our traditions come from the same source - our common Slavic ancestry. So the very opposite is true - our traditions used to be one and they have been divering over centuries.
yes, that’s what I meant, but maybe used the wrong word 😅 I meant that historically, it’s difficult to separate the traditions, since geographically it wasn’t always as clearly separated either
@ Even more so, historically - we have never melted, because historically we were one at thestart ;) We are un-melting now, rather than melting. No czaisz dziołszka, c'nie? ;) Po wsiach tak dzieciaki wciąż latają.
Thank you for talking about our Kuekri, Karolina ❤ The costumes come in all shapes and sizes, some have these really heavy bells attached to their belts, which are really loud when they dance, so that they can chase away the evil with the sound
i'm welsh and in school we had to fucking make masks off Mari Lwyd and then paraded around the school scaring all the year 1's
I actually find Father Christmas slightly creepy.
As it turns out, he's nothing compared to these creatures.
Why, *why* , do they all have serial killer stares, and an excessive amount of teeth?
You win, Meme Mom, you win.
Remake of the Victorian Monster Huntress but with these creatures
The weirdness of (Eastern) European culture we all wanted to see!! So happy that you gave our kukeri a 1000 🥺🥺
These exist all throughout Europe, literally
@@desanipt I know, I’m just happy with Eastern Europe getting some attention, haha. The ones from Spain are just gorgeous!!
I feel you sis
Me anytime Eastern European stuff is mentioned haha I feel like we're underrated in terms of people's awareness of our cultures
@@desanipt yeah but Eastern Europe deserves some more attention, unlike Western one who is built on larger countries having the main role in america's history and are a lot more recognizable. You learn for it, you hear for it a lot more in general. A lot of people would not know and do not know for Easter Europe not to mention South-East Europe to exist by itself and not Russia or some other empire. We are just... kind of there, the peasants of larger empires and their history, of europe as continent, but this does not mean we do not have our culture.
My favourite one was the one with the plants from Spain but I'm a biologist, so..
I didn't even know people did this outside of Bulgaria :D Awesome! Happy you like our Kukeri so much.
In Colombia South-America around the end of the year, we have “Las Murgas” which are groups of people disguised as the death, the devil, an old person and voluptuous woman. They make folkloric music with drums and ask people for money. I think they are more connected with the end of the year and less with Christmas.
The Austrian creatures are called Perchten. They are most well know in the alpine regions of Austria. They will have a procession through the town and little children in those same costumes will run around and hit peoples shins with sticks. (I am not making this up I swear)
OMG, there's like a hundred species of Krampuses!
Sometimes the only way to make your toddler behave is to put fear in their heart but, you know, children being terrified of ther parents is not generally conductive to good family relationships? So, you gotta externalize the fear.
But ah! If you promise the monster will come, you gotta deliver! Make good on ypur promise. And what better time of the year for the monster to come that in the darkest of days and longest of nights!
The wisdom of the ancestors is truly great.
She: She‘s kinda cute
Me: that‘s a literal horse skull
3rd century austrian peasant: yknow what we're gonna do? we're gonna cover ourselves in hay, and get gigantic antennas as well, how about that?
other peasants: he's really got it
im giggling so hard
It would be interesting to see the different traditions related to each costume. For example the best part of the Mari Lwyd is you have to sing battle it or it breaks in and steals your food. Fun.
I'm very sad we don't have a Christmas monster in the Netherlands.. :(
But when I was on vacation in the Lötschental in Switzerland, we stumbled upon these creatures called Tschäggättu. There was a big parade with like 50 of them. They look pretty much like krampus or perchten, with the fur costume, bells and wooden masks. They would try to scare you or even grab you. It was so cool!
I guess we have Black Pete 😬 the krampus are also Saint Nicolas helpers.
The Kukeri are my absolute favourites too, but the ones from Spain with all the plants and flowers were a pleasant surprise, did not know them but now I love them.
If you like this kind of costumes check out the Mamuthones from Sardinia!
Re: the Christmas movie. A classic halmark movie, our mains are snowed in in a cabin somewhere in rural Europe and their falling in love, but keep getting interrupted by Carollers in increasingly bazaar outfits showing up to say “hey, give us food”
✨ *”wild”* ✨European Christmas creature costumes
We had a Mari Lwyd in our school and when she wasn’t out and about she was stored under the stage. Which was fine until you forgot about it and had to go down there to get something and turned the terrible light on and BOSH! Face full of horse skull! Terrifying.
Finn here, hello, I can try to explain the differense between Joulupukki, Joulu pukki and Nuutipukki a little:
Joulupukki: Santa. Or Christmasgoat if you will. (Yes we call Santa clause Christmasgoat) (btw he lives in Finland, in Korvatunturi.)
Olkipukki: hay/straw goat. Also known as Joulu pukki/Christmas goat I think. Ornament, made out of hay. I dunno the origins really but the fact that Santa is literally called Christmasgoat makes it funny to place tiny (or bigger) "Christmas" goats (like they are actually goat shaped, unlike Santa) around the house.
Nuutipukki: this tradition takes place after christmas. Nuutipukkis (nuuti goats) "come take christmas away". Kids can basically throw on anything they find around the house (so nuutipukki can pretty much look like anything really, but i think it often has some sort of fur items etc old looking things on, I dont think goat masks like the ones in the picture are that common but sure why not) and then they go from door to door and often sing a song or too and people give them christmas candy or any food really that is left from Christmas.
Also the swedish Jule goat is basically the same thing as Olkipukki I think? But maybe they have compined it with Nuutipukki and have a similar tradition with it but under the same name with the ornament?
Hopefully that helped😄
Oh weit yes originally Nuutipukki was an adult dressed up as a goat like the ones in the picture, but that must have been a long time ago. These days I guess the "tradition" is that kids dress basically the same way they do on halloween and go around asking for leftover candy, the costumes can be like spider-man outfits etc but also I think it used to be more common to dress in old clothes and furs and leather things etc.
Also Kekripukki during Kekri that is Finnish All Hallows eve!
I dreamed of being a Kukeri dancer when I was a kid. They are terrifying and awesome. Sponsored by Pantene™️
About capra (literally means goat lol) : the first picture is a real capra, while the second is a cerb (the male deer, I have forgotten the word). They are similar, but they are part of some little theatre acts that are a lil different for capra and cerb (in the cerb game there are more hunters and I think less peasants than in the capra game, really the difference is very small)
10/10 for everyone who's keeping these traditions alive!